OTTERS TO FACE SPITS IN FINAL
Rematch to decide Memorial Cup title
A better effort by the Saint John Sea Dogs was still not good enough to beat the Erie Otters.
Riding the hot goaltending of Callum Booth, the Sea Dogs were able to stay even with the Otters for two periods before Erie took over in the third period.
The Otters scored two goals in a 67-second span early in the third and went on to post a 6-3 win over the Sea Dogs in Friday’s semifinal of the 99th MasterCard Memorial Cup before 5,410 fans at the WFCU Centre.
“We’ve been in one of these situations before where we had to play for our lives,” said Otters captain Dylan Strome, whose team beat London in overtime in Game 7 to advance to the third round. “I think we kind of know what it takes in these moments.
“We’ve faced a lot of desperation in these playoffs and I think this team kind of rises to those occasions.”
Friday’s win sets up an all Ontario Hockey League final for the first time since 1993 when the host Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds beat the Peterborough Petes in the final. The Otters will face the host Windsor Spitfires in Sunday ’s final. Game time is 7 p.m.
“We outshot them 30-10 in the second and third period,” Strome said of a 4-2 loss to Windsor in the round robin. “If we didn’t have such a lapse in the first period, I think we would have been pretty successful.”
Erie’s 12-5 win over Saint John in the round robin set a tournament record for goals by one team, combined goals by two teams and Strome’s seven points were also a record.
Things were far tighter in Friday’s semifinal and a lot of that had to do with the play of Booth, who was pulled in the first period of the round-robin game.
“Our goaltender has been one of our best players throughout the playoffs,” Sea Dogs head coach Danny Flynn said. “He won us some games down the stretch.”
And he had the Sea Dogs thinking upset after 40 minutes with the game tied 2-2.
Erie took an early lead in the opening frame when Darren Raddysh outraced Saint John defenceman Simon Bourque on a play that could have gone for icing. He stepped around Bourque and beat Booth.
“In a tournament like that, it’s huge to get the first goal,” Sea Dogs defenceman Thomas Chabot said.
Saint John pulled even before the end of the period as Joe Veleno batted a puck out of the air to tie the game at 1-1.
The Otters dominated the second period, outshooting the Sea Dogs 17-4, and went up 2-1 on a Taylor Raddysh power-play goal.
“You’ve got to walk the line because you have to respect the fact the teams in this tournament can intimidate you with their power plays,” said Flynn, whose team gave up seven power-play goals to the Otters in 14 chances in two games.
A strange play eventually allowed Saint John to pull even after two periods. On what looked like a delayed penalty, Booth headed to the bench for an extra attacker. A whistle never came and Taylor Raddysh scored, but after a short conversation it was waved off and Saint John went to the power play.
Julien Gauthier scored on that power play to deadline the game at two heading into the final frame.
The Erie offence then took over.
Strome slipped a shot under Booth’s pad at 2:38 to put the Otters up for good. Rookie German Poddubnyi stretched the lead to 4-2 just 67 seconds later.
Taylor Raddysh added his second goal on a power play at 12:31 to extend the lead to three before the Sea Dogs’ Thomas Chabot broke the momentum with a goal at 16:28. However, the Sea Dogs weren’t about to get any closer.
Warren Foegele added an emptynet goal for Erie to finally ice the win as the Otters rebounded from the round-robin loss to Windsor to set up a rematch in Sunday’s final.
“I think, with any team, you win when your best players are your best players,” Otters head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “It’s good to get contributions, if you can get them, from your fourth line, but very rarely do you win games when your fourth line is your best. For the most part this year, we win or lose with those guys.”
“We’ve lost a lot of games before,” Erie centre Kyle Pettit said. “It’s not our first loss ever. Losing is part of the game. It’s how you bounce back. “